I, RWBY
by Arthur Hansen
Summary: Tony Stark; rich teen going to school by day, power armored hero by night. There's nothing his brain can't solve. Well, eventually. Being blasted out of his own dimension by Makluon technology might take him a little while.
1. Little Boy Lost

Blinding white flashed from the Makluon artifact, filling Iron Man's vision. Tony Stark, the boy in the armor, clenched his eyes shut as it felt like his stomach fell as if it were lead. Opening his eyes, he realized that was the wrong thought.

Because he was literally falling to his death to the forest below him. "Thrusters to full!" he ordered his computer as the he fell a very large brick, spinning through the air. The thrusters kicked in at the wrong moment, sending him flying _down_ at an angle and smashing through three trees before impacting the ground.

"Ouch."

With a whine of his servos, he sat up. "Okay. Time to access GPS and find out where I'm at so I can find the Mandarin and whip his butt."

His HUD shifted focus and then brought up a red circle with an error.

"What do you mean, no GPS signal?" he complained to his armor as he stood up. "Guess I'll have to find out the old fashioned way. Flying high up and then-"

 _BZZT._

"Annnnnnd I've got a broken thruster. Just great," Tony complained to himself. "Guess I'm walking. With the sun over there just above the horizon and rising, that makes that East-ish."

* * *

"Yang! Yang!" Ruby Rose yelled out as her thoughts wound round and round frantically. She broke out of the underbrush and nearly collided with the white-haired Weiss Schnee and a brightly armored figure that shot from the side to stop them from running into each other. Both girls looked over at the face plate and the blue eyes beneath it.

"Whoa, you guys alright?"

Both girls back peddled from the armored figured.

"Uh, yeah. But who are you? I don't remember seeing you at the top of the cliff," Ruby asked.

"Yes, who are you?" Weiss had her revolver rapier held in a casual, loose grip that pointed toward the ground in front of her.

"Most people call me Iron Man," the man-machine said in a deep, electronically distorted voice said. The faceplate broke apart and folded away. "But you can call me Tony." He looked about their age.

"That's armor? Very garish with all that red and gold," Weiss said. "I am Weiss Schnee and this dolt is Ruby Rose."

Ruby pouted, but didn't argue the point. "But aren't we partners now?"

"No," Weiss said, turning on her right heel and walking away. Only sixty feet away, she came across Jaune Arc.

"Hi!" he said as suavely as he could while hanging from his hoodie that was pinned to a tree by a spear.

Weiss turned around again, walking right back to Ruby.

"This in no way means that I like you," she said as she grabbed Ruby's arm as she walked by.

"Um, guys?" Tony asked. "Don't you need to get him down?"

Weiss stopped as she let Ruby go. "If he was competent, he should be able to get down on his own. Up there, he won't be killed by the first Grimm to wander by. If he's quiet."

"Those Grimm are the shadow monster things, right? I've run into a few of them while walking towards the only radio signal I could pick up. Some place name Vale off that way." Tony pointed towards the cliffs. He directed his armor to pull the spear out with a tractor beam. "Odd. This spear has been polarized already."

Jaune landed with an oomph, holding a hand to his abused tailbone. "Ow!"

"That's Phyrra's spear. I hope she does not need it right now," Weiss said as she tapped a finger to her chin. "So, Tony? Are you from Atlas? That armor looks like something cobbled together from our defense robots," Weiss asked.

"No, I'm not from Atlas. Or Vale. I'm not even sure I've ever heard of those before. This place... it's odd. No satellite GPS, few radio signals and monsters everywhere. It's definitely nothing like Earth," he replied.

"The Kingdom of Earth? Uhm, the only kingdom I remember called that was hundreds of years ago, before it fell to the Grimm," Ruby said, thinking hard.

"That was the Kingdom of Erta. Not Earth," Weiss corrected.

"Earth isn't a kingdom. It's a planet. Also known as Terra or Sol III. The third planet in the solar system." And Tony braced himself for what they were going to say.

"But this is Remnant. Though I've never heard anyone called it the planet Remnant," the girl with black-cherry-red hair noted.

"And that's what I was afraid of. Somehow that Makluan artifact sent me to another world or possibly a different dimension-"

"Do you seriously expect us to believe such a wild tale?" Weiss said, cutting him off. "At least make your lie believable. I bet you are just another obstacle in our way for the entrance exam. Come on, Ruby. We have to get the artifact."

"Um, I don't feel right about leaving Jaune here alone. Or leaving the guy in the really cool armor! Does it transform?" Ruby squealed happily.

"Yes?" Tony wondered how had she guess that.

Weiss stopped, thinking and considering. "Well, let's see it."

Tony raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? Fine, I guess." A mental command to his armor sent it unfolding and sliding plates off his body. In moments, he was in his signature red T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes, armor now folded up as a backpack. "It's just to allow me to have my armor with me incognito, so to say. Probably a good idea, as it's low on energy. I need to get it recharged."

"Your lightning Dust is nearly depleted? I'm sure you can buy some in Vale." Weiss looked quite unimpressed with the 'transformation'.

"Dust? Maybe I misheard that?" He thought he had figured out how to translate their language using the armor and his Extremis by tapping into their phones and radio signals. He stuck his finger in his ear, even though it did nothing to help his situation.

"Yeah, Dust! The power of nature in crystalline form! Everything runs on Dust," Ruby explained, a wide grin on her face as Jaune snickered in the background.

"Well, everything but my armor, I guess. I somehow think I'm going to have problems finding a megawatt generator," Tony said as he redeployed his armor, but left his head uncovered.

They all turned as they heard something approach at a rapid pace. Everyone but Jaune tensed and readied for a fight. He belatedly started to crouch just as the auburn-haired girl Pyrrha vaulted over a large bush.

"Ah! I expected to find Jaune, not you two and- Who's the boy in armor, Weiss?" the dueling champion asked.

"He goes by 'Iron Man' or Tony Stark," Weiss said, using her fingers to 'quote' his superhero name.

"Is he part of the initiation?" she asked.

"Nope!" Ruby said cheerfully. "Looks like you found your partner, Jaune!"

The blond perked up at that.

"Can't we-?" Weiss asked.

"No take backs!"

The platinum blonde almost wilted at that. "Fine."

"Looks like we are partners, partner," Pyrrha said to Jaune. She gave him a wide, genuine smile.

"Yeah!" he said in a bashful tone.

"We should continue on." Weiss gave the boy in the hoodie and armor a suspicious look. "And we should probably stay together for safety." Unsaid was that it was more for Jaune's safety.

"Do you mind if I tag along? Though I think you should get your weapons ready. Five nonhuman creatures are headed this way from that direction," Tony said, pointing towards the large bushes to their left. He tossed Pyrrha her spear.

The pack of Beowolves leaped out, trying to surprise the hunters and hero, only to be met by bullets, spells and repulsor beams. The last beowulf dodged left, then right, then a final right and leaped at Jaune only to be cleaved in half by Ruby's scythe.

"Hyaaaaa!" she said as she finished her move, legs bent. The end of her handle smacked Jaune's shoulder with a hard whap.

"Ow," he cried as he dropped his sword. He had barely pulled it out before the fight was over.

"Sorry, Jaune. Crescent Rose takes up a lot of space," Ruby said.

"Didn't your aura block that?" Pyrrha asked in concern.

"Uh, Aura?" Tony and Jaune asked in unison.

Weiss and Ruby shared a concerned look while keeping an eye Jaune.

"Yes, you dolts. The manifestation of our souls that helps protect hunters," Weiss snapped out, very irritated.

"Souls? Really?" Tony had one eyebrow arched so high it disappeared under his hair.

"Could it be you haven't had you Aura unlocked?" Pyrrha asked.

"Uh. Well, about that-" Jaune stuttered, sure he had been found out.

"Oh! He didn't have anyone that could unlock it for him in his family! Probably felt ashamed to ask a teacher to do it, too!" Ruby blurted out. She had seen that with a student at Signal, where they had not told anyone they were still Aura-locked and got hurt badly.

The blonde decided to roll with it. "Uh, how did you know?" he asked. It wasn't hard to act ashamed, at least.

"Don't worry, Jaune." Pyrrha smiled as she walked up. She put her hand on his chest. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite and distant and unbound by death. I release your soul. And by my shoulder protect thee."

A glow surrounded them as Tony and the other two girls watched.

"It looks like you have a lot of Aura," the dueling champion noted with a small smile.

 _"Unknown energy source detected. Unable to analyze,"_ a female's voice said from Tony's armor.

"What was that?" Weiss demanded, looking at him in suspicion.

"Just my armor's A.I. failing to figure out the energy of that Aura thing." Tony scratched his head. "So you say that protects you? I wonder if I should see if you can activate my Aura? I mean, I'm down to 20 % charge here and no sign of a power outlet," he said, joking and smiling at the last bit.

"Power outlet? Of Dust? No, you said you didn't know what Dust was," Weiss said, correcting herself.

"Just good old fashioned electricity. Something a little less than a lightning bolt." He gave her a grin. At least his heart did not depend on the armor at times.

"Oh? Is that all. Do I need to zap some lightning into a plug or something?" the platinum blond asked.

Tony blinked. "Uh, no." His helmet snapped back into place. "Zap away, princess."

Ruby stepped away over to where Jaune and Pyrrha stood.

"Hmph. I'm not a princess." Myrtenaster's revolver chamber rotated to socket yellow Dust in the aura chamber. With a surge of her aura, she unleashed a small bolt of lightning.

"Nice! Up to 40% charge. Can you do that another four times?" Iron Man asked.

Weiss blink-blinked at that. "I could, but that would leave me without any lightning Dust for personal defense."

"One more time then? I'm sure I'll be fine at 50 % charge," he replied.

Another lightning bolt and Weiss studied the armored figure. "Hmph."

Pyrrha turned to Tony as he retracted his helmet. "I can't activate your Aura for a bit, I'm afraid. I'm a bit drained."

"No problem! I'll do it!" Ruby cried out, pumping a fist in a victory pose. She closed her eyes for a second to remember the phrase.

"Don't be silly. You need a great deal of control and power-" Weiss said, only to be interrupted as Ruby put her hand on Tony's chest.

Tony listened carefully as the redhead chanted the same mantra as he felt something warm suffuse his body. "Whoa!"

"Hmm. I'm surprised. How old are you?" Weiss asked.

"Fifteen. Why?" Ruby with a hint of suspicion.

"Because I barely learned how to do this year. And I'm considered a bit of a prodigy," Pyrrha admitted as she set her hands on her hips.

"So now what?" Tony asked in curiousity.

"We need to go to the north side of the forest, retrieve our artifacts and make it back to the cliff," Weiss said, nodding her head sharply.

"North is that way," the armored alien said, pointing off in a direction.

"Wow, sounds like you have a lot of sensors in there," Jaune said, wishing he had armor like that.

"I do. I'm tracking about thirty-five of those Grimm things, about a dozen other people giving off radio signals and hundreds of drones and cameras."

The other four kids stared at him, then Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Ozpin did say they would be monitoring us," she said a bit angrily.

"Oh no! They wouldn't disqualify us for this, would they?" Ruby said, horrified at the idea of being kicked out. Would Signal take her back in?

Jaune looked even more worried.

"Of course not. I mean, this just shows how we would deal with a lone hunter we would run into in the wilderness. Allying together shows that we are social and intelligent," Weiss replied in a ruthless, cold manner.

"So let's go." Iron Man started tromping through the woods.

* * *

"Why not?" Jaune asked. "The artifacts could be in there." He pointed to a cave in a small cliffside.

"Because it's a natural cave that has a really, really big life form about seventy feet in," Iron Man said.

"What!?" Ruby and Weiss both shouted, readying their weapons.

"And I think it heard you, because here it comes," Iron Man said, sighing.

The trained hunters all hopped back twenty feet as Iron Man readied his repulsors. So the Death Stalker smashing through the too small opening only surprised Jaune who scrambled back in a panic.

"Repulsors; full power," Tony ordered his armor. With a shriek of particles, two beams of light shot from his hands. The Deathstalker's heavy torso armor took the hit, ablating part of the damage and leaving small, shallow craters. "You have got to be kidding."

"Move!" Pyrrha shouted as she and Ruby fired their weapons in gun forms.

The Deathstalker lunged forward as Iron Man tried to launch into the sky, only for his system to buzz and not activate his boot jets. Massive pincers, larger than a man, snagged him and tried to crush the hated human.

"Whoa!" Tony said as warnings lit up his HUD. "Full power to shields... NOW!"

A repulsor shield snapped into spherical existence, pushing the claws apart.

Weiss formed a glyph in front of her, attracting the armored form to her. Jaune narrowed his eyes. "Shoot the cliff above the Grimm," he yelled out as he held his shield out and stepped up to interpose his own body between Ruby and Pyrrha and the giant scorpion monster.

"Right! Switching to fire Dust," Ruby called out, discarding the current magazine and then slapping in one of her two spare mags in its place.

"That isn't going to work," Weiss said even as she started to shoot blasts of lightning from a yellow glyph she created.

"Unibeam to full power!" Iron Man called out, blasting out with the full power of his major repulsor weapon. All of the attacks hit home on the cliff above the Deathstalker as it started to move up to snap Jaune in half.

With a massive crash, the Grimm found itself buried beneath tens of tons of rock.

"I wouldn't have believed that any creature could do that. Then I remembered the Hulk. Now I'm wondering if that will hold it?" Iron Man said.

The young heiress snorted at that. "Well, I think we concluded the 'destroy anything in our path'," Weiss said after a long moment. "Let's get out of here in case it digs itself out."

"Say, could you give me another lightning blast? My unibeam uses up a lot of power."

* * *

Half an hour later, they followed the sound of explosions and the happy squeal of a girl to find two other pairs of hunters in training.

"YANG!" Ruby cried out, disappearing in a blur of rose petals and tackling her sister.

"Hey sis!" the older sister said, hugging back.

The Asian looking young man narrowed his eyes at the strange robot, but turned when he realized that redheaded hammer wielder had grabbed a golden Rook.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

"Nora!" he yelled out.

"Coming, Ren!" she called back, trotting over to him with a giggle. She caught the chess piece as she left.

Blake looked at the pedestals. "I think that is everyone from the initiation. We're the last."

"Right!" Ruby ran over and grabbed a gold Knight. "Let's head back to the cliff. Tony, guide us away from any big concentrations of Grimm. Keep your eyes peeled while we move and stay with your partners."

Tony raised an eyebrow. That was remarkably assertive. "Well, you heard her, Armor. Scan for hostiles."

Half an hour later their luck ran out as six Ursa appeared.

"Smash right through them!" Ruby called out, charging the one in the middle.

Jaune charged in at Pyrrha's side, but started to backpedal as he barely intercepted a swipe with his shield.

"Whoa!" he cried out.

"Jaune, look out-" Pyrrha called out, releasing a sigh of relief as a bubble of energy appeared around him that blocked another claw swipe.

Iron Man turned away from helping the least combat effective person here to see two Ursa running at him.

"Tony!" Weiss shouted.

"I've got this," he replied confidently as he waved her off from charging across the battlefield. "Target missiles and fire!"

Mini-missiles popped up from hidden panels in the armor's shoulders. With a scream of thrusters, they shot out at high speed towards two of the Ursa, blowing them up with great force.

"I WANT ONE!" Nora shouted. "How do I get an armor like that?" She ran up and swung her hammer with her whole body, smashing it's jaw so hard teeth went flying.

"Sorry, it's my own personal creation and not for sale."

"Ah," she said as she set her hammer on her shoulder.

"Keep moving, people!" Ruby called out. "We still need to get up the cliff while not being attacked."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the bottom of the sheer cliff.

"Well, I guess no time like the present to see if I can repurpose my hand repulsors as a main flight system." Tony listened to his armor as it set up the calculations and then shot him up into the air at half his normal acceleration. He cut it off at just the right moment, arcing over the edge of the cliff and not far from Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. "Yo." He waved. Turning back to the edge and the teams below, he called out, "Let me shoot a cable that you guys can hold onto for a quick trip."

Pfft-wizzzzzz went the cable. Ruby set her weapon to sniper rifle and scanned the area, Pyrrha joining her.

"Jaune, you go first," Ruby said over her shoulder.

"Right," he replied.

Yang just readied her gauntlets. "Making my own way up." With impressive jumping power and bursts of flame from her shotgun gauntlets, she led the way for Blake and Weiss up the steep cliff. Nora and Ren were only a moment behind. Then Pyrrha and Ruby followed up using their own weapons or leaping ability.

"Young man, why were you intruding on the initiation?" Ozpin asked, wanting to get it from him directly.

"Got blasted by an alien artifact and found myself in the forest of an alternate dimension. Then I ran into a few of your students and it kind of snowballed from there. Although I'm wondering why this place is called Remnant." Iron Man tapped a section at the center of his armor and it all retracted back to into its 'backpack' form.

"You speak our language very well," Ozpin noted.

"I hacked some data feeds and had my A.I. cobble up a translation matrix that I can access with my technopath abilities." Tony quirked a grin at Ozpin's small slip in expression. "I'm known to be very technologically savvy on my world."

"Do you have any way to prove this?" the headmaster asked.

"I've got some of my world's data in my armor, of course. And once it's repaired, I might be able to show off some of its abilities which I don't think you guys can do. I mean, it doesn't run off of Dust or anything like that. Just need electricity to charge it up."

"That may work. So what are you going to do?" the headmaster asked as all the students watched.

"Well, try to figure out a way back to my world. Which will require more than my armor." Tony frowned at that.

"Well, you are of age to fit in at Beacon. And it's possible we may be able to work together for the benefit of all," Ozpin said as he leaned on his cane.

"Headmaster?" Glynda asked.

"It will be fine. But for now, we need to assign teams. Everyone, head back to Beacon and clean up."

* * *

"-Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long will form RWBY; led by Ruby Rose." Headmaster Ozpin looked around. "Congratulations all. School starts tomorrow at eight A.M."

The students milled around or headed to supper as their wants dictated. Glynda caught up to him as he went to the security elevator to the armory a few levels down.

"I'm not sure why you let him into the workshop," Goodwitch said, looking slightly upset. Well, slightly _more_ upset.

"He requested tools to allow him to repair his armor, which he thought would be a short affair."

The elevator stopped and opened, just in time to see the red and gold armored figure zipping about the large workshop room at high speeds. He spun around and fired this bootjets to slow down, then landed with a soft thud. Tony' helmet retracted.

"Headmaster! Professor! It was a quicker repair than I thought. So my armor is at near peak status. So what sort of tests did you want me to try to 'prove' that I'm not from Remnant?"

Goodwitch frowned. "Hmm. A flight to Atlas and back? Or Mistral?"

"That shouldn't be too tough. I've got your beacon system set up so that I know where I'm at these days. Nothing harder than that?" Tony asked.

"Well, you could fly up into space. The would prove that your Iron Man armor is not based on Dust technology," Ozpin said, half in jest.

"Sure! That sounds more fun and I can get some better scans of the broken moon!" Tony looked quite excited at that idea.

"That was actually meant in jest as a moment of humor. Can your armor really go into space?" Ozpin said, his eyes widening ever so slightly.

"Sure. Not as good as my specialty armor, but I've got more than enough power to hit low orbit without a booster module."

Glynda narrowed her eyes. "And you can transmit your beacon locator the entire time?"

"That shouldn't be hard," Tony replied as his armor sealed up around him.

Ozpin had his Scroll open and tapping on commands. "Set your beacon to 1.52 kilohertz."

"Got it," Tony replied as he applied his technopath abilities to his scroll and his armor to copy the signal. 1.48 kilohertz, hmm? Slightly different measurement system.

Two minutes later he tromped outside, surprising several of the upper year students.

"What's that? I mean, it looks like an Atlas robot, but all red and gold," a hulking fellow said.

"Moves too naturally," Coco countered.

Iron Man gave the pair a quick salute, then fired up his jets and his palm repulsors. "Thrusters to full."

With a massive woosh, Iron Man streaked higher and higher. After fifteen minutes, he achieved low orbit

"Iron Man to Beacon Academy, can you read me?" he called out.

"We read you, Iron Man." Ozpin pondered the odd callsign for a moment. "We are showing you at about one hundred and fifty miles up and about to cross the horizon."

"See you in about an hour then," Tony replied. He spun the armor around to face outward. He wanted to scan that moon.

It loomed closer than he thought. A quarter the distance and smaller. The broken fragments looked tidally locked to the moon, which itself had a revolution of once very two week. Which did not make a bit of sense. "Armor, scan for temporal energies."

 _"Scanning!"_

Tony waited, watching the different icons on his HUD. He recorded the lands below as he flashed over them in the starry void. He saw few signs of a global civilization.

 _"Detecting unknown energy classified as 'Aura' within the debris of the shattered moon,"_ his armor spoke up, distracting him from looking down on the near pristine world.

A glowing haze appeared on his screen. "Huh. Looks like it is an energy field around something. Can you put a 3D wireframe up."

 _"Processing."_

The picture of a black dragon, hundreds of miles from nose to tail (or wingtip to wingtip) nearly froze Tony's blood cold.

 _"Identifying. Unknown energy has a 95 % match to subject Ruby Rose."_

"That thing has an aura?" Tony shook his head as a counter hit zero. "Begin reentry. Iron Man to Beacon Academy, do you read me?" The hour had passed quite quickly, in Tony's mind.

"This is Beacon Academy, Iron Man. We read you," came Glynda's reply. "Are you on your return path?"

"Reentry, yes. We will lose the ability to communicate due to the plasma sheath that will be created upon entering Remnant's atmosphere," Tony explained. "Prepare for a lot of people to see me, as I'll light up a quarter of Remnant's sky while I do this."


	2. Alien Among Us

Headmaster Ozpin studied various angles of view of the latest initiation on his computer screen at his desk.

"Professor, he really was not lying," Glynda Goodwitch said, pointing at the shooting star that slowly grew larger as it fell from the heavens.

His eyes flicked up, then turned back to his screens. Discretely, security cameras panned to record the scene for later evaluation. "Indeed, it appears that he has technology that in some ways is very unfamiliar and rather powerful."

Glynda nodded as the shooting star started to dim and then landed down below in the courtyard. "So what are we going to do?"

Ozpin froze one of the views, smiling slightly at the sight of Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee meeting the young man. "He will need some resources, so I think some trade is likely. He also looks to be an age of the rest of the teens. So I think I might shoehorn him into the class this year. Glynda, could you schedule a meeting with the Council of Vale for tomorrow or the day after at the latest?"

"You know they aren't going to give you any more funds," the severe disciplinarian noted.

"It rather depends," the older man said, pausing to sip his coffee, "on what is being offered in trade. A power armor that can make a normal person close to the combat effectiveness of a trained hunter is nothing to sneeze at. Especially with Atlas expanding their robotic forces so greatly."

"You don't think it will come to war, do you?" she asked, her stoic facade slipping a bit.

"Not if we take steps to maintain the balance of power between the kingdoms. The tricky part indeed will be doing so without inciting the war we wish to avoid," he replied.

* * *

Coco tipped her glasses down her nose slightly as she watched the red and gold figure land on the ground on some weird thrusters. "You know, I'm not easily impressed, but that was rather cool. So where did you fly off that you got so hot you were glowing?" And she knew cool, being a hip fashionista and culture expert.

Fox Alistair smirked at that. "A volcano or something?"

Tony just arched an eyebrow at that as his faceplate retracted, which just felt odd to do. Why would they think that-? Oh, right. They've never been into space. "Just air friction. My armor can go fast enough that it becomes a problem."

The near giant Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow at that. "I've never heard of anything that goes that fast. Even the latest attack fighters from Atlas don't go that fast."

Velvet nodded even as she took out her camera, trying to figure out which angle to use. "So that armor is also your custom weapon, right? Does it use your semblance?"

Tony had his armor retract its helmet. "I hate showing my ignorance, but what's a semblance?"

All four of CFWY gave him an odd look, with Coco pushing her sunglasses further down her nose.

"How did you get into Beacon without even knowing what a Semblance is, much less without knowing what your Aura's particular Semblance is?" Coco asked, one eyebrow disappearing under her bangs.

"Oh? It's part of your Aura? Well, I had never heard of Aura before today, then I got mine unlocked. Everything I do is just my brains making things like this armor. Ozpin just wanted me to take a test flight." Tony made an oops expression. "Speaking of that, I need to get back to him before he gets annoyed." He gave them a wave and headed in. Ozpin would not want his window smashed in.

The top level had no number, just the word 'Headmaster'. Tony shook his head as the door dinged and then opened. "Professor Ozpin?"

"Please, do enter, Anthony Stark. That was quite the display that you just finished. Now we just have to figure out how to use that outer space effectively," the old man said with a hint of smile.

"I think I have a few designs for some Stark International communication satellite. I think they function as weather satellites, too. Pretty useful stuff," he replied as he walked over.

"For cross continental communication, I assume? The CCT towers we have now are new technology and are expected to have issues if one tower goes out. So, Mr. Stark, shall we haggle a little on details on how we can both help each other?"

"What do you want?" Tony said suspiciously.

"In point of fact, I know what you want; the resources to figure out a way back to your own world. The tricky matter that we must discuss, is how are you going to pay for it while being without home or employment."

"That's basically it," the teen replied.

"As headmaster of Beacon, I do have many resources and connection to the government of Vale. I would like your assistance in helping us with some technical matter like your spaceflight, satellites and perhaps even some help in making armor like your own-"

"No. I don't give out my armor. Period."

Ozpin stopped and studied the young student. "I think I must ask for some more information other than just no, as it why you are so vehement in denial. This might take a while, so let me get you something to drink," Ozpin said as he stood up. "Make yourself comfortable. Do you prefer coffee? Tea? Juice or soda?"

"Um, do you have apple juice? Or even mineral water?" the boy asked as he stowed away his armor in its backpack and then set it on the ground. "I'll even take a snack or something. It's been a while since I ate anything."

The old man nodded as a small wet bar and coffee making station rose up from the floor. "I do have a bottle of apple cider. I'm afraid the only snack I have is some bread sticks.

"Professor, I'll head down to the cafeteria to have them send up some sandwiches," Glynda told her boss.

"A good idea, Miss Goodwitch. Thank you for taking the time to think of us. Did you want to be involved in this discussion?" Ozpin asked his assistant.

She gave him a thin smile. "I should probably make my presence known among the first years before they become any more rowdy." Glynda slapped her riding crop to make it give a snap.

"Indeed, you should do that. We really don't need any riots or team rivalries starting up on the first day." He set the bottle of juice and the paper-wrapped dry bread sticks in front of Tony.

A boy who immediately ripped open the package and crunched down a stick noisily, then took a large swig of the pale golden juice. "Thanks." He waited for Ozpin to sit down, then continued. "I've had my armor technology stolen and abused by my enemies too many times. They even patented it to try and steal from me."

"A young man like you has so many enemies?"

"Well, when I'm in the armor, they can't really tell how old I am. And I built the armor originally to as an emergency life support and rescue module. Had to use it for the first time on myself. Then I had to use it to find and rescue my father, my friends and the people of the city from criminals."

"Hmm. It appears that you were not familiar with the concept of the Grimm. Your world does not have these monsters?"

"Um, no? Just how many of them are there?"

"We have no idea, as their number never decrease. Only behind the natural barriers of the four kingdoms can civilization exist."

Tony Stark blinked at him. "Headmaster, how many humans are there on Remnant?"

"Each kingdom has over ten million people," Ozpin replied in quiet pride. "We have no exact numbers of the people outside civilization, but I think the current estimate is only another six million. An amazing increase from only two hundred years ago when we only had about fifteen million people in the whole world."

"Forty-six million...?" Tony replied in horror.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Stark?" the headmaster asked as she leaned forward, hands held together under his chin as he sat at his desk.

"Professor, I... I _lived_ in a city of eight million people. Tokyo, that has the most people in my world, has twenty-five million people. Our population hasn't been that low in, um, I think thousands of years. The Earth's latest estimated population is about seven and a half billion people. I thought with your advanced technology you would would be having a population explosion like we did."

Ozpin narrowed his eyes. "The only response I can come up with, Anthony Stark, is that this _is_ a population explosion. With Grimm covering our world, humanity has been struggling to survive since ancient times. In fact, the discovery of Dust is the only reason civilization, human or faunus, even exists today."

"That's a lot to take in. So your interest in my armor isn't to plan to take over the world, it's so you can just _survive_." Tony looked upset, but nodded to himself from where he sat on the opposite side of Ozpin's desk. "I won't give you the Iron Man armor, but I'm willing to help make you weapons to protect the people of this world. That's a promise."

"Then I am sure that I can gather together resources to help you get home. Though perhaps your world may be able to actually help our world." To imagine a world of humans, not monsters. "But as you do not have a guardian, identity or place to stay; I would ask that you join Beacon Academy. Not only will we house, feed and let you use our machine shops and labs, but you can learn more about the Grimm so that you can help us fight them."

Tony rolled his head in indecision, then firmly nodded his head. "That's cool. I was still at school, mostly for the social sciences thing. I was actually teaching my physics teacher things."

"Well, you do have more to learn about Dust." Ozpin cleared his throat as a _very_ tiny smirk played on his lip. "Even though you did not know of the initiation's rules, you managed to somehow follow one of the rules for joining a team."

"I did?" Tony raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yes, you did indeed. As Miss Schnee and Miss Rose both met your eyes first, I will be adding you to Team RWBY. And it will be henceforth known as Team RWBYS. They are both technically partnered with you, thanks to your attempt to stop them from hurting each other." He reached into a drawer on his desk for a sheaf of papers as the elevator opened to admit Glynda again. "Ah, perfect. Professor Goodwitch, once Anthony Stark here has finished his paperwork and sandwich I would like you to take him to join his new teammates in Team RWBYS."

Glynda maintained her composure. "Why that team in particular, Professor Ozpin?"

Ozpin nodded to Tony in front of him. "Anthony Stark here managed to fulfill the partnership requirements with Miss Schnee and Miss Rose. He will also need some uniforms and all of his school supplies."

She nodded, wondering what he played at. "I'll see to it."

* * *

Glynda led the latest student down the dormitory hall and stopped in front of a door, where she could hear muffled talking inside. "Mr. Stark, before we go in, I want to stipulate to you that Beacon Academy is the world's best hunter's academy. I expect you to be cleaned, groomed and proper at all times. Be liberal with the use of body deodorant. There are Grimm that hunt in the dark by smell alone. You will not enjoy being sent back to your dormitory to _rectify_ any problems. Is that understood?"

The young inventor nodded his head frantically. "Yes, ma'am!" Did he stink that badly?

"Good. I am sure that your current odor is just the byproduct of your trip to Remnant, the initiation and your flight around our world." Glynda then turned and knocked on the door.

It popped open a moment later with Ruby standing there in her outfit sans her hooded cape, a happy smile that fell to worry at who she saw. "Professor?"

"This is your new teammate. And your team is now Team RWBYS. Mr. Stark here has agreed to join Beacon Academy for the time being. Be sure to answer any questions he has," the teacher explained as her eyes went over the room. Right, only four beds.

"Um, sure. Welcome to Team RWBYS! And yay, it's not just my name any more!" the younger girl cheered.

"I'll be back shortly," Glynda said as she pushed him in and shut the door behind him.

Tony blinked, then looked around at the four _girls_ he was now teamed with. "Uh, hi again? How does this even work? The dorms are co-ed?" Hmm, that term was closer to co-gender in their language.

"Sure, teams could always have boys and girls," Yang said. "I'm just wondering how we are going to fit in here.

Weiss did not show her displeasure. Much. "Our beds barely fit in here with our luggage." She did _not_ complain.

"We could probably do bunkbeds. And if we get a fifth bed, I'm sure I can make something to turn it into a hide away bed. Probably up to the ceiling," Tony mused.

"You did mention you were an engineer, didn't you?" Blake said from the corner of the room where she sat on her bed.

"Bunk beds! That would be awesome!" Ruby shouted. "I've got some rope."

"Professor Ozpin said I have access to the shops, so I can just something a little better than a jury rig," Tony said.

That got a pout out of Ruby, but she nodded. Then her eyes brightened. "I want to see that!"

"I thought your Crescent Rose was perfect already?" Yang yelled in a catcall.

Weiss snorted in derision as Ruby and Tony both replied (loudly), "No such thing!"

Tony and Ruby shared a bemused look, then started laughing.

The wall behind Blake abruptly exploded outward, revealing Glynda Goodwitch with her long wand out as she used her semblance to disassemble the wall. She divided the room next door in half, stacking three beds in the far side by its bathroom and then recreated the wall.

"There. You now have five beds and a _little_ more room." As the girls opened their mouths, she continued with, "And no, you do not get the other half and its bathroom. Teams _will_ learn to how to manage using one facility."

"Oh, poo," Ruby said.

"And Mr. Stark, I meant that you should clean up _now_." With that she exited the room, closing the door firmly behind her.

All the girls looked at him in confusion, then sniffed. Horror dawned equally on Weiss and Blake's face at the stench that assaulted them.

"SHOWER!" the four girls yelled As they started to slowly encircle him.

"Um, I can shower myself," Tony replied backing up into the bathroom.

* * *

Tony's handheld started blaring its wake up at seven o'clock the next morning.

"What is that racket?" Weiss asked with a groan.

"Sorry, my alarm. Professor Goodwitch's comment yesterday about sharing the bathroom reminded me that there are five of us to share the one bathroom-" he started to explain, even as he walked to the bathroom. "I mean, we only have about an hour and a half before we need to be in class."

Ruby lay spread out on her bed with her sleeping mask (with cute red Grimm eyes on it) and her sleeping clothes. "He's right, you know. Especially if we want to eat before class."

Yang groaned even as she sat up. "And I don't want to be hungry during our first glasses."

Blake just nodded as she stretched.

Ten minutes later, Tony stepped out of the bathroom, tugging at his collar. He started to the arcane process of attaching the red tie around his neck. "Bathroom's clear."

A blur of red rose petals blasted past him. "My turn!"

Forty minutes later, all five of RWBYS made their way to breakfast. Cardin looked up from his pancakes, eggs and sausage.

"So there are five of you. That's an unlucky number, you know," the square-jawed teen said.

"Well, until I can figure out a way to get home. I've got a lot of work ahead of me." Tony gave him a shrug.

"You think you are so smart-"

"I do. It's my superpower," Tony said, interrupting him. "But right now, I'm hungry. Which is a superpower all teens have."

"And you wouldn't like to see me when I'm hangry!" Yang said, letting her eyes flicker red for a second.

"You guys are weird." Card bumped fists with Dove as he sat back down at his table.

"So five is a taboo number? Or just a little unlucky?" Tony asked after they filled their plates.

"Just unlucky. Your partner helps you form a pair," Blake said, speaking up for the first time. "Two are stronger than one. Four is a strong number, of two partners. A fifth person though, has no partner."

"So a pretty literal fifth wheel," Tony said and then chuckled. "But Professor Ozpin said I actually have partners, because Ruby and Weiss both saw my eyes."

"What!" the two girls over reacted. "We're partners!?"

Yang chuckled. "Oooh! A threesome! That's rare."

"What happens after you go back to your world?" Weiss asked.

"I assume you two will stay partners. And who knows, you guys might see me a lot more, even if I do get back home." Tony's face turned very serious. "There is a lot of Grimm to destroy." He shook his head. "Besides, I might take you back to Earth to show you a place with no Grimm."

"Not sure I believe such a place exists, lover boy," the gold-blonde of the group said.

"I've got some videos loaded on my phone and armor. You'll see, young grasshopper," Tony said in a terrible Asian accent.

"Guys, we only have fifteen minutes, so let eat!" And with that, Ruby speared her stack of pancakes.

* * *

Tony Stark flipped through his Grimm Studies book at a rapid pace, thankful that his Extremis allowed him to process things so much faster.

Yang's elbow to his side drew his attention.

"What?" he hissed in a low whisper.

"Mr. Stark, if you would ready yourself, I want to see how you would subdue a Grimm. Perhaps it might keep you focused on the class rather than playing with your book," Professor Port said, still with a smile under his mustache.

"Of course, professor. I haven't had time to read all the required reading books," Tony said as he grabbed his backpack.

"Please do so, but not so loudly to disrupt my teaching. Do you need to get your weapon from your locker?" the professor asked.

"Nope, I'm ready," he replied as he clicked the buckle together at the center of his chest. Then tapped the button in the middle of it.

Most of the students blinked as they watched him become suddenly armored in just a second.

"Hmm. I have to say, armor you can put on that fast would be useful. But where is your weapon?" Ozpin and Goodwitch had been a bit annoying with how vague they were about this young man.

"This _is_ my weapon," Iron Man said as he powered up his armor's different weapons.

"Very well." Port grabbed his trusty blunderbuss-axe and smashed the lock, stepping to the side so that the Grimm within saw only the bright red and gold figure.

"What's he going to do? Punch it like Yang and her shotgun-gauntlets?" Russel asked.

The Boarbatusk jumped out, catching sight of its strange foe. Red eyes gleamed under its skull plating. Two red gauntlets caught it by its head and with a twist and a heave, smashed the porcine threat into a ten foot crater even as he snapped its neck. "Oh, good. That works too."

"Oh dear. Professor Goodwitch is going to be... miffed at having to fix that," Professor Port said, wagging his mustache. "I dare say, that is quite the semblance you have there."

"Professor, that was my armor that let me do that." Said armor retracted from his body and into its pack as he walked away from the disintegrating monster.

"I so want a set of that armor!" Ruby and Weiss exclaimed, though for slightly different reasons.

 _I could totally defeat a lot more Grimm with that armor! Ruby thought to herself._

 _With armor like that, I would definitely take the top position at Beacon and make everyone want to join my clique! Weiss thought._

"That's rather scary," Blake said at the maniacal looking girls.

"Hmm. Yeah. At least they are on our side. Hey, Tony? Could you make it so I can punch harder?" the busty blonde asked.

"Probably. Which reminds me, I need to make some things before the end of the day," he mused aloud. He started to flip through the pages at a slightly slower pace, so that the paper did not rustle quite so much.

Class resumed as Port droned on.

* * *

Weiss, Yang and Blake walked back to their room. Opening the door, they saw that Tony and Ruby had been a bit busy while away at the library. The girl's beds now sported functional and safe sockets that turned them into bunkbeds. Next to the window (and between the bunk beds) stood a cabinet of some sort.

"Hey, guys! Tony's thinking of making better book shelves," Ruby called out. She had fun helping Tony with the basic engineering. And the things he planned to do for their weapons made her salivate in anticipation.

"Is that your bed, Tony?" Weiss asked, pointing imperiously at the bed shaped cabinet.

"A murphy bed, yes. And I made a desk that folds down, too." Tony grabbed his backpack and slid it on. "I need to go and run a scan for the portal that brought me. I've left a contact on your scrolls so you can call me if you need anything."

"Stay safe, Tony!" Ruby said as she waved to him as he armored up and shot out the window. "All right! Let's finish decorating!"

"What about Tony?" Blake asked.

Their leader turned solemn. "Blake, he doesn't really _have_ anything to decorate with. And I didn't want to rub that in his face."

Weiss's eyes widened at that. Between Tony's 'studying' by flipping through all the pages and Ruby's doddling during Port's class, she had thought that Ruby was incapable of being serious. "That's... true. We should look at getting him some non school clothes and items."

Yang grabbed her little and starting to scrub her hand through Ruby's cherry-red hair. "Oh, now look at that. My sister is being all grown up."

"Yang, stop that!"

Miles away, Iron Man floated to a stop as his scanners spotted smashed trees and a thirty foot ditch carved into the forest below. "A little bit of calculation, remembering the angled curve and I now only have about fifty cubic feet of area to scan with my upgraded sensors. And bingo."

 _"Scanning for spatial portal and energies. Exotic particles detected."_

"Lock on to the portal. Let's see, just a little alpha and beta particles. And... that's odd. That looks like some of the God particles that people have been trying to discover for decades." Iron Man's repulsors fired, blasting three small Nevermore's out of the sky. "And that looks like a tunneling chronon. Armor, calculate the time dilation field using the chronon decay that we just scanned."

 _"Time dilation ratio: 1000 to 1, estimated time elapsed on far side of the aperture at two minutes and six seconds."_

"Well, so much for me waiting to be rescued," Tony groused to himself. "Even if SHIELD reacted with their best response time, I'm still looking at being here for months." Then he grinned to himself. "Well, I always did like a challenge."

His armor shot away, back towards Vale and Beacon Academy.


	3. Fitting In Making Friends and Enemies

Tony Stark sketched an idea as he and his classmates listened to Professor Port tell his anecdotal story about defeating a Beowolf. "Is there a problem, Weiss?" he asked.

"My problem is that both of you aren't listening attentively to the teacher!" the heiress hissed out.

"I'm recording it. I'll have my A.I. parse it for the two or three tidbits of useful information about the Grimm that we need for the test. And I can use the rest of the time to design better anti-Grimm weapons," Tony replied, not even looking up from his work.

"Yeah, even I know all this basic stuff. I just have to do something to keep awake until he says something new and different about them," Ruby explained, still doodling a crude cartoon of Port.

Weiss carefully kept her temper. And as she cooled down, she could see where they both came from. It galled her, it annoyed her and made her a bit angry, but they weren't actually 'goofing off' entirely.

After a pop quiz at the end of class, they headed over to Goodwitch's combat class. Everyone stopped by their rocket-lockers to pick up their weapons. Ruby blinked, seeing Tony pick up two rods and a chestplate.

"Uh, Tony? Did something happen to your armor?" the stricken girl asked.

"I can't really use to learn my aura that well inside it," he explained with a quick smile. "And I get attacked outside my armor all the time."

"I'm not the best without my Crescent Rose either," Ruby said in commiseration, patting him on the back.

Ren slipped his two pistol into his sleeves. "I would be happy to help you with that."

"Um, I've had some self defense training. Just not weapon training, you know," Tony explained. "Not that I wouldn't mind a sparring partner. My only practice recently has been assassins."

"I'm so taking you up on that. We should get Yang to spar, too," Ruby said.

"I heard that!" the blonde called out, causing a small laugh.

"To class!" Ruby called out, dashing ahead.

Ten minutes later, they finished watching Cardin crush Jaune in a spar, wincing at Jaune's flailing and misuse of his shield.

"And that is the match," Goodwitch called out over the buzzer, suppressing the desire to shake her head in disbelief. "Who wants to go next?"

Tony raised his hand. When Glynda pointed him and Yang out, they both stepped up.

"I'll go easy on you," Yang said, making sure her hair was over her shoulders.

"Oh. Really."

"Begin," Goodwitch called out.

Yang got her guard up just in time to block a punch to her face. "Ooh, got some spunk there, Tony." She danced left, then right, popping off three quick punches that he blocked. She hopped back, then charged forward to strike out with her full force. "You're fighting like you don't have an aura!" Her eyes popped open wide as he slid to the side during her next punch, grabbed her wrist and face planted her to the ground with a yank and pivot.

"Talk about [telegraphing] that," Tony said even as he kept circling.

"What did you say?" Yang asked as she rolled to her feet.

"Oh, yeah. No word for that in your language. Eh, easiest explanation is that you 'shouting what you were about to do'. Do you always leave yourself that wide open?" he replied.

"Most people would have punched me in the face," she replied, circling.

Ren, watching from the crowd, frowned as he studied the two students. Little precision, finesse and almost no tactics in their moves. Tony's moves were fast, but not well practiced and jerky. Yang left herself wide open far too much.

Tony mentally dialed up his Extremis speed to full amplification and watched the world slow down. And then he went on the offensive as he pulled out his electro-batons.

Yang's face turned comical as she yelled out in slow motion, "Oh... Crap!"

To the outside world, Tony blurred forward and started to smack the electrified batons all across Yang's arms, legs and stomach.

Dove shouted out, "Look at him go! Nice semblance, dude!"

The young man stopped his attack, letting Yang recover. Goodwitch hmm, studying her scroll which showed the young blonde woman almost out of aura. She opened her mouth, only to watch Yang explode. Well, erupt with a flaming aura as her eyes turned crimson.

"Now you've done it, you jerk!" the glowing woman said, charging forward. She swung down in a wild punch with her left arm, shattering the ground.

 _That_ Tony found himself unprepared for, as that left him hanging in the air. Yang blasted forward and with her right arm. Tony dropped his left baton to grab the wrist swung his other baton at her face to get her to back up.

Neither action worked out in the manner either of them planned, as Yang ignored the threat and her fully semblance empowered fist slammed into his chest like a freight train even as his stun baton smashed her nose flat. Tony flew off the stage and pancaked against a wall, leaving a large impact crater that he fell to the floor in front of. Yang's eyes crossed as her brain finally processed that she should now take a nap

"Hmm. Double knock out. I think the rest of Team RWBYS should take both of them to medical. As in _now_ ," Glynda said in a stern matter.

"Tony!"

"Yang!"

* * *

The last bell rang, releasing them all from the torture known as school. "Hey, Ruby? I'm going to go back to our room and take a shower." Hmm. And maybe wash her hair? Should have enough time before supper.

"Sure, sis." Ruby looked at her wounded sister.

Yang entered their room ten minutes later with her free hand on her hip and no intention of letting it rub her taped nose and her two black eyes. The sound of water running in the bathroom stopped her. "Crud, Tony must be in there after getting out of the infirmary." She rubbed her cheek for a second. Well, she could go check out the two old friends from signal that made it past initiation.

So with a shrug, she headed right back out.

In the bathroom, Tony finally stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist. With a soft groan, he checked out the very large, developing bruise at the center of his _cracked_ sternum. He wouldn't screw up like that while fighting Yang again. And he still had to apologize for smashing her nose. He took a half hearted effort to comb his hair and then turned to open the door.

"Come on! Don't hog all the hot water," Ruby called out from the other side.

"Sure-" Tony said, opening the door. Only to stop and blink, as Ruby and he stared at each other.

Tony only in his towel.

And Ruby staring at him with her shirt half off and wearing her black tights as pants, though still preserving her modesty. Mostly.

"EEEEHHHHH!?" the girl squawked out, making sure she was covered.

"Sorry!" Tony said, covering his eyes.

"You're not Yang!" Ruby exclaimed even as Weiss turned the corner from their bunkbeds.

"Why would I be Yang?" he replied.

"Because Yang said she was going to shower," the girl said. Blaming her sister came easy, as her doing this sort of trick would not surprise Ruby at all.

"Are you really all right, Tony?" Weiss asked as walked up and looked at the large bruise.

"Yeah, the doc told me that the bruise should go away in a few hours and the sternum should be okay by the morning. They gave me a local pain patch and told me to Scroll them if it starts to hurt really bad after it wears off." Tony coughed. "Ruby, are you covered yet?"

"Yup," the girl replied, blushing furiously as she pulled her top on and down with a few tugs. "I was just going to shower after Yang, but... well, you know. That happened."

"We'll just have to be respectful and try not to let it happen again," Tony said, sporting his own blush. With a grimace of pain, he considered matters. "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to just rest tonight. Hopefully Friday won't need any supervision."

"Friday?" Weiss asked, very carefully keeping her eyes looking at his face. Not the chest with developing muscles. A Schnee did _not_ blush, she lied to herself.

"The version of my artificial intelligence I've got loaded in my armor. I have her working on building the mass accelerator while she designs a Scroll plugin so she can talk to the local networks natively." He sidled by Ruby carefully. "Could one of you guys get me something from the cafeteria?"

"Of course-"

"-we will! You're our partner, right partner?" Ruby asked Weiss.

"Exactly." Weiss gave a curt nod.

"Thanks."

* * *

Early the next morning, Tony wandered into the workshop with his partners in tow.

"Hey, Friday. How's it going?" he called out.

The Iron Man armor stepped away from where its welding workspace. "It is going okay. Primary systems are still operational and mass accelerator is progressing. Another ten days and we should be able to test it. I will then need the Dust cartridges and Lightning Dust for a recharge at that point."

"So what are we looking to do here today, Tony?" Weiss asked curiously, noting that some of the machines had new automated robotic arms working on things.

"Tactical headsets and for my partners first, improvements to the blades of your weapons. For all they use Dust, they are still essentially just sharp metal. And unless you have ten or fifteen years at a minimum, they won't cut much better than that. So I made replacements that generate hyperfast, vibrating force-fields," he explained.

On the workbench in front of him lay the main blades of Crescent Rose (all five of them) and a replacement for Myrtenmaster's blade. A few more components and a new hilt for the rapier lay on the ground. A replacement blade and handle for Blake's weapon finished out the last section of the table.

"How much more piercing or cutting power are we looking at?" Ruby asked in a low, awed voice.

"About four or five times as much. Don't use it against a person unless you really want them dead. It's designed to work against heavier Grimm armor. I don't know if you can use your Aura to improve it either," he explained. He sighed. "I'm going to have to entirely remake Yang's gauntlets. And I've got an idea of what to do with Blake's sword on top of her vibro-blade. I'll have to talk to her about options on the sash and her sheath."

"What about JNPR?" Ruby asked. "We can't leave Jaune and the gang behind."

"That is a good point," Weiss admitted, studying her younger partner generosity and consideration.

"I've got some plans for vibro-blades for the blade users, basic shield generators for Pyrrha and Jaune. The tricky one is going to be Nora. For her and Yang, I'm working on inertia-amplified impactors."

"Yang will love that!" Ruby exclaimed, as Weiss nodded in agreement.

"The problem is, I don't want it falling into unfriendly hands. Ie. the White Fang and criminals. So I'm making them black box technology that has to be installed here at Beacon and only for certified hunters. Well, excepting you guys, of course." Tony gave them a smile at that.

"That is awesome!" Ruby exclaimed. "Best presents ever!" She grabbed Tony in a tight hug, then let him go to look at her baby's new blades.

"Thank you, Tony," Weiss said in her own manner, even if she wanted to give Tony just as big a hug.

"You're welcome, guys. That's why we're partners." Tony turned back to the Blue-Tooth headset-like devices. If he had deciphered what Friday had figured out, these should interface with their scrolls and stay useful during combat.

* * *

Tony stretched as RWBYS walked to the cafeteria. He glanced over at Yang.

"I told you, you don't need to apologize," Yang said before he could say anything.

"Which is cool, but I was thinking-" Tony frowned as he went over. "I think your Semblance is a Pulse-Ebb attack type."

"What does that mean?" Ruby asked in intense curiosity.

"That's from Advanced Aura Theoreticals by Alan Estrades, right?" Weiss asked as she processed what he was suggesting.

"I sorta get the pulse part, but what do you mean with ebb?" Yang asked with narrowed eyes. "Because that sounds like there's something wrong with my Semblance."

"Not wrong, but it's something you need to be aware of. While you are punching someone (like myself) with your Semblance, you are barely tougher than a normal civilian. Which is why your nose broke so easily." Tony gave her a small shrug. "So you should really make sure that they aren't getting counter-attacked while you swing."

"What's the worst that could happen? I get another broken nose?"

"Or lose your head. Or get stabbed through the heart," Blake said with a flat tone of voice.

"Well, yeah. I guess so. But what are the chances of that?" Yang replied flippantly, brushing her long hanging hair back over her shoulder.

"It only has to happen once. And think how Ruby would feel," Tony said, giving her a stern glare. Ruby, for her part, just looked between everyone like she was watching three different tennis matches.

Yang stopped talking at that point, looking ashamed.

"Come on, Yang. You just have to learn to be careful while raging," Ruby said with a bright smile. A smile that fell as she realized what she said. "Oops."

The blonde frowned, thinking over things as they entered the cafeteria and got into line to get their food. "I guess I need to rethink things and change my strategy. I always kind of figured stronger is tougher."

"But with teamwork, we can cover for weaknesses in our powers. Or," Weiss said and then smirked at this point, "how to leverage the most of our strengths."

"All I have to do is figure out what my Semblance thingie is," Tony said as he watched the server plop mashed potatoes on his plate. "How do you do that?"

"Trial and error. Unless you are a sneaky-Schnee! Then you just ask anyone in your family and they tell you what to do," Yang said, sticking her tongue out at the heiress.

"There's still much trial and error to figuring out the Schnee Semblance," Weiss said with a pained expression on her face.

Blake followed them to 'their' table, looking forward to enjoying her baked fish and salad.

"Quit it," a girl called out from behind Blake and Yang.

Across the table from her sister, Ruby looked on in worry as a Faunus with bunny ears tried to fend off Team CRDL. Tony looked upset, while Weiss frowned.

Cardin pulled her ears hard enough to hurt, but not leave any marks. "I can't believe they let animals like you into Beacon. You don't deserve to be here."

"Please, just stop," the Faunus said as she tried to pull her head away without hurting her large bunny ears more.

Tony stood up and started walking to circle around the table.

"Hey, jerks," a woman's voice called out from the doorway. "What in the abyss do you think you are doing to my cute teammate?" Cocoa slipped her glasses down her nose. Those dimwits in her class happened to be sitting close enough for her to see the picture someone took of Cardin tormenting Velvet.

"We're just showing that we don't appreciate her kind here," Russel said, backing up his friend.

"Velvet, quit being so nice," Cocoa called out.

"Or, you know, CRDL could just stop being racist assholes," Tony said, clenching his fists. "It's people like you that make people believe you have to fight jerks like you with extreme violence."

"I'm all right," Velvet said, looking over at Tony in surprise while pulling her ear out of Cardin's hand.

"See? We're not _injuring_ her," Cardin said with a smirk.

"You make that sound like that makes a difference," the team leader of CFVY said as she sauntered over to Cardin. She then rabbit punched him in the stomach and then slammed her _very weighty_ purse onto his head when he clutched his stomach. "One warning. Do anything like this shit again and I will kick your asses so hard that your grandchildren will feel it. Got it?"

The other three members of Team CRDL looked ready to fight, then realized that Team RWBYS and JNPR stood up against them.

"Yeah, whatever," Russel said as he dragged Cardin back from the group. "We we're leaving anyways."

"Cocoa, you could get suspended again," Velvet said is soft reproach.

"Yeah, whatever. Totally worth it. Thanks, armor guy. Didn't know you were that fired up against racists like Team CRDL," Cocoa said.

"Yeah, well where I'm from it's getting pretty bad. I have a friend that had to fight being drafted into a terrorist organization." Tony looked quite upset. "Jean did not deserve that."

Blake narrowed her eyes. "I thought you said there were no Faunus where you are from?"

"There aren't. They are human, but with powers naturally from birth. Weirder than just a Semblance," Tony clarified. "Their radicals call themselves Homo Superior. Regular human radicals call them mutants or muties. And both are starting to think the Earth isn't big enough for two races."

"So what? You guys have all that cool tech, right? And they have weird semblances," Yang said as she sat back down.

"Weird like 'I can magnetically rip [tanks] apart with my mind and throw it at the intrepid hero'," Tony said with a grimace. "Magneto was total pain in the tush to deal with."

"Rip what apart?" Weiss asked.

Tony blinked. "Oh, right. A [tank] is a large, treaded war-machine with a a main cannon that can shoot a mile or two and blow up small buildings. Generally they weigh about one hundred and fifty tons of 'mean' and armor. Even I don't like to get shot by a [tank] in my armor."

Pyrrha gulped as she thought of the power required to even _lift_ a hundred tons.

"Tony, if you don't have Faunus or Grimm on your world, who would you use a _tank_ against?" Ruby asked.

He sighed at that. "Each other, of course."

Nora's mouthed 'ooohed' silently while Ren let himself give a small nod.

* * *

Jaune Arc stared bitterly into the sky with the shattered moon. He had finally revealed his treacherous past to the one person that he cared for. And driven her away with his harsh words. The sound of a window opening drew his attention.

"Are you two finished arguing?" Cardin asked, a sneer in his voice. "I have no idea what that girl sees in you." If only the window had been open, he could have heard what they were arguing about.

"Nothing. Nothing at all," Jaune replied. "Sorry for disturbing you." With that, the cheater headed back to their room with his head hung low.

The next two days passed by in a dull blur, as even looking at his teammates caused a dull ache in his heart. So by the third morning, he found himself surprised as she pulled him out of bed with a hand over his mouth.

"Quietly," Pyrrha said. "Get your gear and meet on the north-east quad." At his shaking of his head, she frowned. "You are my partner, Jaune. And partners help each other." She released her hand over his mouth and stood up. "I'll see you in ten minutes, okay?"

He nodded mutely, quickly throwing on his jeans and bunny hoodie. Then he pulled on his hand me down armor. He then headed to get his armor and sword on his way to the meeting point.

Outside, he found Pyrrha going through repetitions with her spear. She turned to him when he came within fifty feet. "Good, you made it. Are you ready to earn your place here at Beacon Academy?"

"Huh?" he asked eloquently.

"You want to become a Huntsman, right?" She continued after his nod. "Then do the work to be the best Huntsman you can possible be."

"I-"

"You were willing to risk your life. What's a little work?" she asked.

"That's a really good point." He straightened up and his expression turned serious.

"The first thing we need to start with is your habit of charging recklessly. As a rule, just don't until you know what you are are doing," she explained to him.

"But you do it all the time," he complained.

"I have a buckler that I throw and control with my semblance. And I _know_ what I'm doing." Pyrrha sighed. "You don't build the roof of a house before you build the foundation."

"Wow, that sounds wise."

"It's common sense, really," the 'Invincible Girl' replied.

Jaune chuckled pulled out his sword.

"First, we fix your basic stance. Feet just wider than your shoulders. Bend your knees so you are crouched slightly."

He complied, feeling a little strain from the unaccustomed positioning. "And now I swing my sword?"

"No, now you do squats." Pyrrha looked at him, a worried expression on her face. "There's no easy way to say this, it is going to suck and you might hate me afterwards."

Jaune gave her a serious look. "I could never hate you."

An hour later, it took a great deal of will to force himself to believe that.

* * *

Tony put on his chestplate, gauntlet-gloves and then his electro-batons, closing the door on his own Beacon rocket locker. The concept of 'holdout weapon' seemed to be lacking as a concept here in Remnant.

"Aren't you going to bring your armor along?" Weiss asked her male partner as she gathered her Myrtenmaster and put it at her side on her belt.

"Yeah, but I need to learn to really use my Aura. Wearing my armor won't help with that," he replied.

Half an hour later, Glynda Goodwitch led her class of six teams along a well travelled path through the beginning edge of Forever Falls.

"Wow, it's so cool," Ruby exclaimed even as she kept an eye out for Grimm.

"Why is it such a uniform red?" he asked his team.

"Dunno. It's always been this way." Yang ducked below a branch.

"Hmm." Tony grabbed a couple of leaves and slipped them between his armor and padding. "I don't really do biology, but I memorized several high school and college books on it. Just in case I need to know about it."

"No wonder class seems so boring. Even history," Weiss said as Blake nodded her head behind the heiress.

"I've been trying to model Remnant's history. You know, trying to predict the big attacks. Lots of unknowns, but the Four Kingdoms, they are nearing apex kingdoms from the past," Tony said, a little grim about what the data showed.

"So we only have a few more years before they all collapse? I've heard a few historians talk about it, like there is a curse on civilization," Weiss said.

"Or there is something else going on," Blake said, showing a bit of her cynical and fatalistic side.

Tony grimaced at that. "Something adaptive. I think the only reason it didn't happen after the 'great war' is because everyone stopped fighting with almost all their military forces intact. The same goes for the Faunus Liberation war."

"So you're saying the Four Kingdoms aren't gone is because of luck or something?" Yang asked, her gauntlets already extended and ready.

"I don't know. Some of the things that the ancient kingdoms could supposedly do sound pretty crazy. I mean, raising the dead? Super hunters with the power of their forefathers? Floating castles?" Tony just shook his head.

Ruby snickered. "Does the arena for the Vital Festival count as a floating castle? It's big enough!"

Everyone blinked and looked at Ruby, thinking over what she said.

"So if we can make floating castles, does that mean the other things might be possible?" Blake finally asked, a note of doubt in her voice.

Tony scratched his chin. He would need to shave in a few days. "I've seen some pretty crazy things. So maybe? You'd have to be able to manipulate Auras and Semblances artificially." They could measure it on their Scrolls. That's the first step to manipulating it.

Glynda came to a stop ahead of them. "All right, everyone. Gather your samples of syrup while keeping your eyes open."

Blake narrowed her eyes as her bow twitched, her sensitive hearing picking up Cardin and his team laughing about something.

And the name 'Stark'.

"Tony, I think CRDL is getting ready to pull something. And I heard your name," Blake said.

That snapped his attention onto her. Out of the peripheral of his vision, he kept track of Cardin and group casually sneaking off in the direction of a small hill that overlooked the area. "One of them carried a jar with wasps of some sort in it," Tony said, thinking back to visualize the team on the walk here.

"How did you see that?" Weiss asked in suspicion.

"And how big of wasps are we talking about here?" Yang asked, thinking over gathering red sap here.

"I have a very good memory and they were about eight inches long," he replied.

"Rapier wasps?" Weiss asked, her eyes wide in shock. "Those can be dangerous."

Tony frowned at that. "Looks like we are going to have to depend on you and Blake then, Weiss. All of our weapons aren't suited to attack fast, small flyers. I, of course, get to be bait."

Ruby looked back and forth. "Yang and I will get ready to deal with Cardin and his group. Come one, sis."

Yang raised an eyebrow as she followed her sister over to the far side of another tree about twenty feet away. "So we beat them up?"

"Only after we use our scrolls," Ruby said with a quick smile.

Yang smiled back at her mischievous sister.

Five minutes later, Cardin look over the ridge down to where Team RWBYS gathered the ruby red sap from the trees. Never a better time, in his mind.

He threw the first jar right at Tony's back.

"Tony!" Weiss shouted as she dropped her jar to draw out her rapier.

Tony turned just in time to get the jar to his face. "Ow. Dammit," he cried out. He meant to dodge that

Less than a second later, Dove threw the jar with rapier wasps while Sky shot it just before it hit the ground.

"Awesome," Lark said to his team mates.

Ruby finished recording the incriminating video. "Tony!" she cried out as she followed her sister, trying to figure out what she could do to help him.

Tony tried to swat the nearest rapier wasp, only to find out his fears justified. His stun batons did not work very well to swat the angry insects.

"Hya!" Blake shouted out, cutting one of the insects in half.

Yang arrived, snapping two punches out and shooting her shotgun gauntlets. Only to see that it injured the wasps and made them more angry. "Well, that worked about as expected," Yang quipped.

Weiss frowned as she thought over things while she stabbed a wasp. "Tony, focus on your aura. Everyone else, CLEAR!"

"Clear?" Tony cried out, only to see the heiress shoot a fireball at him. "Oh, shit."

It exploded on impact, sending Tony and the rapier wasps flying to tumble on the ground.

"Finish them off!" Ruby shouted, dashing forward to crush one of the stunned insects on the ground with her sniper rifle.

"I'm fine, thanks," Tony said from the ground as he gave a thumb's up.

"Busy killing bugs, lover boy." Yang smirked as she smashed two of the rapier wasps, one for each fist.

The snap of of a leather crop on a flesh pulled their attention from the last bugs. "What are you children doing?" Glynda Goodwitch asked.

"Dealing with the aftermath of a prank, Miss Goodwitch," Ruby said as politely as she could. "CDRL pulled a mean prank on Tony here because he got them in trouble with CFVY's team captain."

"Oh? And do you have anything other than your word against theirs?" the teacher asked.

"We suspected they were about to do something, so I tried to take a video with my scroll," the team leader explained as she pulled out her scroll.

"I hate being bait," Tony said as he scrambled to his feet.

"Very well. Hand over your scroll. Be on your guard, the disturbance and darker emotions will draw the Grimm in the area."

Tony frowned, shook his head. "Enough gloomy, angry thoughts. You guys going to be there tomorrow when I launch the first Stark communication and weather satellite?"

"Please don't tell me you put some crazy weather control thing in it." Weiss looked perturbed by the idea.

"Weather _forecasting,_ Miss Schnee. Not control. Yeesh."

The Major Ursa fell to the different teams so quickly, it really did not need noting.

* * *

The next morning dawned clear and beautiful. Team RWBYS and half the faculty gathered out on the number four landing pad that overlooked Vale. A stubby cylinder with a sharp looking cone on top sat in the middle.

Professor Oobleck had a bulky, old style video camera. "Almost ready. This is _HISTORY_ in the making here! Why, I am so excited to be here and documenting such a momentous occasion!"

"We know, Professor Oobleck," Ruby and Yang said in sync. Weiss glared at the two girls.

Tony just had a small grin. Five basic repulsor thrusters with one of his high density super-batteries made up the base of the rocket. Then fifteen feet of payload with a cone for basic aerodynamics. "It's not going anywhere until you are ready."

Ruby stared at the headmaster's cup, trying to figure out how it stayed warm in the morning chill.

"It's rude to stare, Ruby," Weiss hissed to her.

"Why is his coffee still warm? He must be doing something," the silver-eyed girl said, squinting hard to try and see the trick.

"Oh no." Yang put her hand to her forehead. "She's going to try and figure this out with hot cocoa."

"I wouldn't... cause a mess again!" Ruby said to her sister, catching herself before she could lie.

"It's a trick I picked up a long time ago. I don't think your semblance would allow for it, even if you figured out how to stretch it to do new things," Ozpin said with a soft smile.

"Got it," Oobleck called out.

The headmaster held his coffee cup so it lay slightly out of sight of the camera. "Very well. Action." Ozpin turned to look at the camera directly. "Today, thanks to the assistant of Anthony Stark, Vale and Remnant will launch its first satellite into orbit over our lands. Not only will it expand the CCT, but it will be able to look down upon the world so that we can better forecast the weather and aid in inter kingdom travel. Eventually a ring of these satellites will circle Remnant, helping the whole world. Mr. Stark, if you would do the honors?"

"Thank you, Headmaster. The self-diagnostics all show green and we will do an abbreviated count-down. Five, four, three, two, one and activation," Tony called out, letting the simple autopilot launch.

The stubby rocket shot higher and higher into the sky until it disappeared in less than a minute.

"Not much to see for about a day. But if everything goes as planned, we should have a backup link between Vale and Atlas," Tony explained.

"There you go, people of Vale. A stunning day of success for Vale and Remnant!" Oobleck exclaimed from behind the camera.

* * *

Gold eyes flared with intense fire in the darkness.

"They did what?" Cinder demanded of her informant.

"It's some sort of satellite that can work as a backup to the Cross Continent Tower system," the slightly chubby woman said.

"Return to work and see if you can find anything about this satellite. And the name of the scientist that made it," Cinder ordered as she turned around.

"Um, I actually have that information already. It's preposterous, but Ozpin claims it is a student. A student with engineering skills that are unbelievable, named Anthony Stark." The informant fought the instinct to dab the sweat off her forehead.

"Hmm. That is useful to know." Cinder walked deeper into the shadows, hips swaying even without an audience. The first thought of a scapegoat came to mind, only to be discarded. Ozpin would not endanger a student like that.

This bore deeper investigation.


	4. The Unfolding Plot

Professor Ozpin looked at the picture from the Stark satellite on his scroll. Seeing the masses of Grimm in heavily infested areas chilled his heart. "So there lies the hearts of darkness." He took a sip of his coffee, narrowing his eyes. "Anthony Stark. You are an enigma."

He closed his scroll as the massive gears clicked and clacked away around him. He stared into the darkness at the edges of his office for a minute. His left hand activated the built in screens on his desk. Three massive windows expanded like scrolls, even as Ozpin brought up his ever growing list of information about Tony Stark.

On his third reading, his eyes stopped on a small note. "Life support module? Hmm."

He pulled out his scroll, sending a quick message to General Ironwood for specifications for the life support module under the codename Autumn Rises. If Tony could improve it to save Amber's life, it must be attempted.

That seemingly simple email changed the world. Ozpin found that out in the future, though.

* * *

Yang stretched as she walked beside her partner from the main landing pad for Vale City itself. "Why are we going into the city so early, again?"

"It's after nine o'clock," Blake replied. "I wanted to look for a new book and maybe see if there are any of the new students from the other academies arriving."

"Oh? Think you might spot some of you friends that went to the other school?" the blonde asked as she pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on.

"No." Blake looked over at her and frowned. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, you must have had some friends at your last school. And some of them had to make it into one of the Huntsman academies, right?" Yang had her hand behind her head as she walked along casually, enjoying the sun.

"I didn't go to a regular school. My training was more hands on. I just applied to Beacon and got accepted," the mysterious girl said.

"For real? Man, Dad told me that the never accept anyone with less than a B grade combat get in. Eh, whatever."

Blake thought over that for a minute. Her worries grew and she realized that they may know exactly who she was.

"Man, another robbed Dust shop," Yang noted. "That Torchwick guy is getting around."

The two students listened to the plainclothes cops talk shop and even mentioned the White Fang.

"The White Fang..." Blake narrowed her eyes. The White Fang, work with a human crook like Roman Torchwick? She sincerely doubted it.

"Man, how much does do they need? What are they planning to do, start a war?" Yang complained with little forethought.

"They wouldn't-" Blake started to say softly, only to cut herself off. "Come on, let's go to the bookstore."

A minute later, Yang stepped aside as she almost ran over a girl in a cute dress. "Whoops, sorry about that."

The girl stopped and looked at her. "There is nothing to be sorry for. We did not collide."

"See ya," Yang called out as she kept walking.

Penny nodded and continued to explore the city, giving them a little wave. "See you later."

"When are the others going to catch up?" the darker-haired partner asked.

"Eh, as soon as they can pry Tony out of his workshop. He's such a geek."

* * *

Ping.

"You have mail," Friday said over the speaker system in Beacon's machine shop #3.

"Nice! How is the move to the local computer systems?" Tony asked as he looked up from his work. He opened his scroll to see an email from the headmaster and then one from a John Ironwood.

"I am at full operation capability," Friday said, causing Tony to frown.

"Still so formal?" he asked his A.I.

"Yes." The A.I. paused long enough for Tony to turn back to project as he went on with his research. "Is that query to verify I did not function as predicted?"

Tony blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "That's right. Here in the machine shop or the lab back in our world, you do not need to be so formal." Did this herald a breakthrough?

"Strange. My programming does match what you are saying, but I did not adjust like I was supposed to. Thank you for mentioning that." The A.I. paused again. "Tony."

"No problem, Friday."

Half an hour later, Ruby and Weiss entered the machine shop. They did not even bother to note the sign stating 'Restricted for faculty only'.

"Tony, we are not letting you waste a perfectly nice day inside on the weekend," Weiss called out.

"Yeah! It's nice and clear outside! We need to get you some regular clothing, too." Ruby gave him a smile.

"That sounds pretty good. I just need your help for an idea I had recently." Tony held up a squarish device bigger than both hands with two straps that made loops.

"What is it?" the heiress asked.

"If it works right, it should amplify your Aura in general and maybe even power up your semblance," he replied as he held the device up to hand to Ruby.

"That's impossible. And if not impossible, highly unlikely!" Weiss countered, ignoring Ruby snickering at her.

Tony chuckled at her. "I didn't even invent the idea. There's this Professor Gepeto Polendina out of Atlas that has his Masters degree in Aura Physics. If you can measure it, you can manipulate it." He tapped his compacted scroll on the table next to him. "And Hunter's Scrolls can measure its strength."

Ruby whistled at that. "Wow. That's really cool."

"Could I- Could I try it first?" Weiss asked in a soft voice.

"Sure, let's get it calibrated." Tony fitted the device onto her upper back and walked over to a computer console of his own design. "All right, I'm turning it on."

A feeling of warmth traveled from Weiss's back and through her spine.

"Okay, I want you to do something big with your Aura," he called out, Ruby looking over his shoulder.

The platinum blonde knelt on one knee and bent over with her sword in front of her point down, as if to use it to hold herself up. A _massive_ glyph appeared beneath her, filling up much of the open area in the workshop.

"Whoa. I had no idea she would make them bigger," Ruby said.

Feeling the warmth flowing through her, she pulled harder on her Aura. And _it_ responded, standing tall as it lifted up through the floor, its head lowered. In moments, it stood over her. And as intimidating as it had been during her father's test to come to Beacon.

The glowing white suit of medieval armor stood silent, the massive two-handed sword held in front of it.

"I did it? I summoned my defeated foe?" Weiss said, her eyes wide in shock.

"Wow, your semblance is cool!" Ruby said. "My turn!"

Tony coughed. "Not yet. I just finished calibrating it. She didn't get more than one or two percent of a boost there." He turned back to Weiss as she dismissed her summon. "All right, Weiss. I'm pushing it up to ten percent now."

"I was that close?" the heiress muttered to herself darkly. "Ready."

An intense heat traversed through her body. This time her summon happened almost instantly and the armor looked less ethereal.

"Now is it my turn?" Ruby demanded.

"Yes, Ruby," the inventor said as he powered the device down. Hmm. It drew more power than planned.

Ruby quickly put on the backpack and then put her hood and cloak over it. "Ready!" she shouted.

"Calibrating-"

"Error," Friday called out from the overhead speakers. "There are overlapping waveforms on very different bands."

"What does that mean? Is something wrong with my Aura?" Ruby asked, looking a bit scared.

"No, I doubt it. Display each band separately," Tony ordered as he expanded the station's screen another foot horizontally and vertically. "Wait, that's the same energy that we detected from the Moon."

"Almost identical now that it is parsed from the other Aura," Friday explained. It then took a step (unknowingly) and created two amplification signals on its own initiative.

"Alright, then let's do two separate boosts," Tony ordered as he started typing.

"Already completed, Tony."

Tony shot a surprised look at the computer in the corner. "Um, very good, Friday."

"It did something surprising," Weiss intuited.

"I think it is becoming fully realized as an independent intelligence. Which is good, because that means I've finally succeeded." Tony checked the graphs and figures. "Another minute, Ruby."

Closer to five minutes later, the calibration finished. Friday started to compare both Auras.

"Now?" Ruby asked, feeling the warmth. In fact, she felt two different things.

"Now-" Tony called out, his voice stretching out and slowing down as Ruby _moved_.

A huge, happy smile adorned Ruby's face as she rocketed around the room in a blitz of red petals. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed the _other_ energy filling her up more. Across the room, Weiss and Tony could barely keep track of Ruby's near flight around them.

"What's that light?" Tony asked.

"You are asking me? My eyes didn't glow, did they?" she responded.

Ruby skidded to a halt in front of them. "Wow, that is such a rush. I mean, even more than normal."

Tony and Weiss shared a quick, worried glance.

"Um, Ruby?" Tony said.

"Your eyes are glowing," Weiss told her bluntly.

"Really?" she replied as she turned to look at the polished metal wall next to one of the fabricators. She drew on _something_ and suddenly a flash of white erupted from her eyes and drained that new, second well of power.

She staggered, everything dimming around her as she collapsed to her knees. Everything felt drained and the cherry-redhead fought to stay awake.

"Friday, increase power to the Aura Enhancer to 50 %!" Tony snapped out as he ran over and helped Ruby lay down.

Ruby started to feel better immediately. "What was that?" she asked in a woozy tone.

"Is she going to be all right?" Weiss asked.

Friday responded to them all, "Yes, Miss Rose should recover if we can continue to provide power to the Aura Enhancer for another ten minutes. That will require another container of lightning dust."

Fifteen minutes later, Ruby felt much better as Tony examined his invention as she and Weiss drank some bottled water.

"So... do I have a second semblance or something?" Ruby finally asked.

"Don't be silly," Weiss countered immediately. "People might have semblances that can do several things, but you can only have one semblance."

Tony frowned at the data. "I think you might be wrong, Weiss. And more than you would think. You _both_ have weird Auras, you know. I only have one waveform in this central band," he explained as he brought up a graph that showed a thick mathematical wave in the horizontal center of the screen. "This, however, is Ruby's. Notice that she has one near the same area and threshold as my Aura. Then, way up here, she has another one that caused her eyes to glow and froze the laser-cutter in a type of time lock."

Both girls trotted over to look at the glowing screen.

"Whoa! That is so neat! Except it nearly knocked me out," Ruby explained.

"From what I can see, you would probably need a week of rest, normally. More if you did not have my booster." Tony gave them a grin.

"That is interesting. But how am I more wrong that I could have thought?" Weiss asked suspiciously.

"Because this is your Aura. Notice that you _also_ have two bands. Well, you have a regular, lower band _and_ about fourteen overlapping bands about two-thirds up the chart to where Ruby's flashy-eyes sits. And I don't think we even amplified the lower band one at all. And you focused all that energy in what I'm calling Schnee-Delta and Schnee-Gamma."

"I see." Weiss blinked. "So that's the hereditary semblance of my family. Great-grandfather supposedly had an ability to give off explosive impacts, which no one else in the family ever figured out." She reached out with her pale hand to touch the lower band. "Then this one is my _own_ Semblance."

"So we tune the Aura Booster to your lower band only and see what happens! That is going to be so cool!" Ruby exclaimed, suddenly leaping forward to hug both of them spontaneously. "Let's do it right now!"

"Hold on just one second. So what can you tell me about these other Semblances?" Weiss said as she shrugged out of Ruby's hug, trying to hid her small blush.

Tony frowned as he thought over the new information to go with his previous studies. "I think this might be a self-sustaining, artificial Aura and Semblance. I just wonder where Ruby's extra one came from."

Ruby's Scroll started buzzing. "Oh no! I told Yang that we would drag you out to Vale!"

"Just answer and tell her I kept you guys for a minute. Keep wearing the Aura Enhancer to get you fully recovered. I hadn't considered the idea for recovery-! Friday, make a note to include the Aura Enhancer for Ironwood's medical request!" Tony said to the air even as he grabbed a few lightning dust tubes and put them in his pocket.

"Of course, Tony. Have a good day in Vale."

Weiss smiled at the voice. "I'm sure you will get to go into Vale some time, too."

"Thank you for your consideration, Miss Schnee." Friday paused. "I would need a remote platform or to load myself back into the Iron Man armor."

"Okay, team! It's time to go before Yang blows another gasket!" Ruby exclaimed after finishing her quick message to her sister.

* * *

"He just winked at you, didn't he? The sly devil!" Yang said with a grin on her face as the monkey-faunus kept on running.

"Stop that no-good, rotten stowaway!" a plainclothes police officer yelled out.

The blond faunus stopped at the top of a street light pole. "Hey, I'm a great stowaway! They never knew I was there!" He turned and continued to run away.

"Our _dashing_ police! How _heroic_!" Yang said as she followed behind her partner.

"Come on, Yang. He's getting away!"

The police gave up after two blocks, but Blake kept another two blocks until she saw him turn around and hop back down to the top of another light pole.

"Can I help you ladies?" He pulled out a banana and started to strip its peel off.

"I'm just following her. Though I think I did find out she likes ripped abs." Yang gave him a thumb's up at that. "I don't mind them either."

"I'm Sun Wukong," the new guy said, blushing just a little bit.

"I'm Blake and this is Yang. And that is not why I chased him. I figured he might be here for the Vytal tournament." She shot her partner a long look. "And maybe ask him if he knew any other faunus here in Vale."

"Um, sure. Let's talk over coffee though." He hopped to the ground.

Yang frowned at her partner, fists on her hips. "Sure. Do you even have any money?" Something felt off with her partner's reaction here.

"Nope."

"I'll buy," Blake said, a pit opening in her stomach. She could not see a way to politely ask Yang to leave.

Five minutes later, they all sat around a table in front of a little eatery. They quickly ordered and then sat there, looking a bit awkwardly at each other.

"Sooo... Is there a reason you chased down Mr. Studmuffin?" Yang asked. "I mean, there are a few faunus at Beacon-"

"I already talked to them. They want to stay as far away from the White Fang as possible."

"Uh, I don't really talk to those guys that much either. Especially when they try to recruit from our school." He gave them a shrug.

"So nothing at all? Not even rumors?" Blake asked intently. She noted the waiter coming back and held up her hand to stop the conversation for a second. After he left, she continued. "I'm just trying to verify what they are doing here in Vale. And if they are working with that Torchwick guy."

Yang looked at her partner with narrowed eyes. "And why do you care so much?"

Blake clenched her hands on her lap for a second. "Because I'm a faunus-"

"I thought so!" Sun interjected as Yang's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"-and I'm worried about what they are doing. There are rumors that some humans are trying to work with them," she said as she thought back to the trio that tried to recruit Adam and his local White Fang group just a few months ago.

"You're not in trouble with them, are you? Because I should probably know if you are." Yang being serious sounded weirded out.

In for a penny, in for the lien. "I used to be a member, but I couldn't stand what it is anymore." Blake turned her vulnerable looking eyes to each of them. "I grew up in the White Fang, even joining the protesters as a child. I thought we made the right choice to stand up for ourselves. But I couldn't- I couldn't let him murder innocent workers. So I left and decided to do something good with my life."

"Whoa, that's pretty heavy," Yang said, leaving her mouth open a second.

"Yeah. Heavy." Sun sipped his coffee, set it down and then leaned back. "I wish I could help, but my best friend is a human so I never believed in their crap." He scrubbed his hair.

"Yeah, me neither. I know some people of... let's say shady variety... but they are all human. And might still be upset after I busted up his bar." Yang tilted her head just slightly. "And his goons. And bodyguards. And his face. But only a little bit."

Blake gave her a flat look. "I'm sure I don't want to know."

"Eh, give it a few more months and it'll be fine," Yang said as she brushed off the problem mentally. "So the only way we are going to find out if the White Fang are involved is to catch the thief."

"Umm?" Sun said, thinking it over.

"That would work," Blake said, narrowing her eyes.

"We can even bring in the rest of the team. I bet Weiss would be thrilled if we caught them stealing from her family," Yang said.

"Huh?" Sun asked. "Does her father own a Dust store here in Vale?"

"He's Jacques Schnee."

"Holy crap? Are you kidding?" Sun shouted out as he jumped to his feet.

"And I'd prefer not to let her know. At least until she gets to know _me_ better." And so that she could find out if she could ever _trust_ Weiss Schnee.

"Yeah, that could be ugly. And speaking of, here comes the crowd. Hey, guys!" Yang called out, waving to her sister and her partners. "Want to go hunt some thieves?"

"Sure," Tony replied. "Capturing badguys is a superheroes job!" He gave them all a grin. When they continued to stare, he queried them. "What's wrong? That's my official job description back on Earth."

"So, um, who are we trying to catch?" Ruby asked.

"Torchwick when he next hits some place," Blake said. She picked up her cooling cup of coffee and carefully sipped it.

"Good. Schnee Dust Company needs to stop losing all their shipments. It's driving father- Never mind. I'm in," Weiss said.

"Sound unanimous! So, how do we go about this?" Ruby asked all the older people around her.

Tony pulled out his Scroll. "Friday, can you dig up any patterns in the thefts and any shipments or stores that haven't been hit?"

"Accessing public files. There are two stores and a very large shipment coming in, earmarked for the Vytal Festival," the A.I. replied in just moment.

Ruby tilted her head. "So why haven't those stores been robbed?" she asked.

"They are both small, marginal Dust shops owned by faunus in the poor part of town. They likely do not have enough Dust to be worth the effort," Friday explained.

"How big is this shipment?" Blake asked.

"About thirty tons of Grade 1 Dust."

"That's a _lot_ of Dust," Yang said, whistling.

"Bring up the data so I can go over it and figure when the best time to hit it tonight is," Tony ordered. "And prep the Mark II for combat and make sure it's fully charged.

"Affirmative."

Down the street, a ginger-haired girl looked towards the group as she followed the unusual transmission.


	5. Dust Old Torches

Penny Polendina frowned as she stared down street towards a group of fascinating people. And a strangely enticing Scroll signal, although she could not say _why_. Unknown to her, old code from one of her father's first full version of her artificial intelligence still scanned for certain types of communication packets.

She followed four girls and two boys, not even trying to hide her curiosity. The dark haired boy laughed at something the cherry-haired girl said.

"Tony! That wasn't fair," Ruby complained.

"No, he's right. Going to a bakery for lunch is not a good idea," Yang said. "I'm _not_ going to let you make yourself sick on eating too many cookies."

The shriek of small thrusters grabbed Penny's attention and caused her to look around.

"All right. Let me grab my armor and your weapons," Tony said, walking to the closest alleyway. A few seconds later, he walked out wearing a backpack and carrying their weapons.

The young android walked up. "Salutation! Are you students here visiting for the Vytal Festival?" she exclaimed in a very cheery way.

The group of xi blinked, startled at her interruption. Ruby reacted first.

"That's right! Well, except for the visiting. We're from Beacon. I'm Ruby Rose," she said as she gave a cheerful wave.

"Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you," the blonde said as introduction.

"Weiss Schnee."

"I'm Tony Stark," he said in bemusement.

"Blake." After a long moment, she finished with, "Belladonna."

"I'm Penny Polendina! I'm here to represent Atlas during the festival," the new girl said.

Tony and Weiss shared a look as Ruby frowned as she tried to remember why the name sounded familiar.

"Oh, he's that guy that Tony mentioned that does work on Aura theory, right?" the cherry-redhead asked.

"You know my father?" Penny asked, surprised at that.

"Yes. Tony here is a scientist and inventor. He seems to be picking up on some of the things your father has published." Weiss studied the girl in front of her, finding her more interesting than a first glance would allow.

"That's very advanced science," Penny replied carefully.

"Yeah, he's even working on an Aura Amplifier," Ruby said in a bit too helpful of a manner.

"Oh? How long has he been working on his aura theory?" the gynoid asked.

Tony blinked and considered matters. "About a week."

"Tony, we need to get back to finding _those guys_ ," Blake said in a pointed way to him.

Ruby's stomach growled.

"After we eat. Come on, there's a cafe right over there. If Penny wants to join us, I suppose that would be okay," the dark-haired and mysterious girl said.

"Yeah, more the merrier. Um, I think I can afford a cup of coffee," Sun said, thinking over it.

"I'll spot you. Us blondes have to stick together," Yang told him.

"Bros forever. Except you are definitely a girl! I'm going to just shut up now," the monkey faunus said, wilting at the looks he gained from the team.

"You're funny!" Penny exclaimed with a huge smile on her face.

Everyone had at least a small smile on their faces, even the stoic Blake.

"So let's plan what we are doing tonight on the way," Tony said.

* * *

Night fell on Vale's docks as Team RWBYS and extras set themselves up to watch for thieves down the street from the docks. They currently sat at two tables with the remains of their coffee and drinks. Only Weiss tipping the girl heavily had kept them in their seats for the hours they waited.

"That wasn't a date, Yang," Weiss replied in a pissed off tone of voice. "Not that I'm averse to dating, Tony."

"Thanks," Tony said in a voice that oozed sarcasm. "Now I'm never going to date again." He didn't plan on dating any time soon, anyways.

"Don't worry, Tony! I'm sure we could date," Ruby said, which got a snicker from her sister.

"Ruby! You really are growing up," the blonde girl said as she tried to ruffle her sister's hair.

"No-no-no! That isn't what I meant!" Ruby babbled as she waved her hands frantically. "I mean we as in us. I mean like me and Weiss-"

"Weiss and I, you mean," the heiress corrected automatically.

Ruby's arms still flailed in her panic. "RIGHT! That! Weiss and I can date Tony. I mean any of us-"

"You heard them, Tony! You have to take them both out," the oldest girl said. Yang put her fist on her womanly hips as she stood with most of her weight on that leg. Butt out slightly and back arched into sexy pose #3.

"Oh? A double date? Are you okay with that, Tony?" Ruby asked, holding her arms in front of her in a suddenly shy manner.

"That isn't what double-dating means." Blake said and rolled her eyes.

Sun Wukong gave her a weirded out look.

"It's _usually_ this big mess to try and go on a date with two girls at the same time." Tony looked a little worried.

"Nothing wrong with it. Polyamory, _friendly_ dates are fine. I mean, you are going to be a gentleman, right Tony?"

"Uh, of course?" he replied as his armor buzzed slightly.

"It would probably throw off the paparazzi," Weiss said in contemplation, tapping her chin with her forefinger. She opened to check her scroll's message. A small, hard smile appeared on her face at the text message from her sister.

Tony had his own scroll open to read the update from Friday. "Guys, a bullhead is on the heading to the docks through the hole in the radar. And it doesn't have a transponder active."

Blake frowned at that. "Smugglers?"

"Let's go see! Ready?" Ruby asked as she hopped to her feet. "Go!" she rocketed down the road and up the side of a building.

In moments, everyone caught up to her, all with their weapons out or readied.

Iron Man kept up the passive sensor scan. "Six people, no load in the bullhead. I'm recording this for the police."

"Good idea," Weiss said as she rotated the dust chamber of her sword to ice for capturing crooks. Her right hand tapped the send button on her scroll and then slid it into her belt pouch.

"Hey, are those more guys in the shadows over there?" Sun asked, using his superior night vision to see into the shadows.

"Oh no," Blake said, her heart breaking just a little bit.

The bulky bullhead transport slowed and started to hover, the engines pointing mostly downward and kicking up dust. It landed with a roar and the engines cut out. In moments, its leader and crew walked down the boarding ramp.

"Well, come on! What am I paying you animals for? That dust isn't going to load itself," Torchwick said to the very obviously faunus in Whitefang garb.

"Tony, disable the bulkhead and hit the left flank with Penny. Yang, Blake, Sun; through the front. Weiss and I will take the right flank." Ruby looked at all of them as their weapons deployed. "GO!"

The bowler wearing villain looked up at the shriek of bootjets. "What is that?"

"EMP burst to the bullhead's computers, Friday," Iron Man said as he swooped in to bracket them in on one side. With a clank, he landed on the ground as Penny caught up.

Ruby and Weiss shot across the ground on the far side even as Blake, Yang and Sun charged directly in them.

"Hunters? No, kids. Red, it's been a long time," Torchwick said. "I see you brought your friends this time." Any minute now. Time to distract them until reinforcements arrive.

"Give it up, Torchwick. You aren't getting away this time," Ruby called out as she pointed her sniper rifle at him and the eight faunus with him.

"There's no hard feelings, is there darling? I mean, how would I know you were going to be reading a magazine at that dust shop-" he replied.

Blake cut him off, a clenched fist at her side. "Shut up!" She looked over at Weiss, then turned back to the thief. A tug on her ribbon removed her bow. "Why? Why are the Whitefang... the faunus working for a creep like him? He's treating you like you're subhuman!" she shouted.

Sun blinked at her in surprise at her back.

Weiss's mouth dropped open. "What?" she asked, the tip of her sword dropped out of position.

"Ooh, we have someone that cares," Torchwick said, a smirk on his face. "They work for me because we're on the same side. And it's mutually beneficial." And because _she_ would kill them all if they stepped out of line.

Yang ratcheted shells into place for both arms. "Yeah, well your little scheme just went up in smoke, Torchy!"

The rumble in the distance got Torchwick to smile.

"Who said anything about little?" he replied. "Get them!" He then fired at Yang and Blake for being closest.

Two more bullheads flew over the bay, deploying their nose chain-guns.

Iron Man shot into the air, intercepting a stream of bullets from the bullhead. "Sorry, not going to hurt my friends today." Had repulsors shot out even as the others dove into action.

Weiss and Ruby surged into action. Sniper shots rang out as Weiss summoned a glowing orange glyph below them. "Now!" the platinum haired girl called out.

Weiss and Ruby shot forward to engage three Whitefang members in melee even as Yang, Blake and Sun all charged Torchwick. And found out he could fight all of them on even ground! Torchwick spun around and blocked sword, gauntlets and bo staff with ease. Then continued his blocks to pummel or shoot them. All while he strived to not show how hard he fought.

On the far side, Penny dashed forward to enter combat against the remaining Whitefang. Swords deployed from her backpack that seemed to float in midair with no support. And then then she proceeded to bludgeon any Whitefang near her in sweeping motions that intercepted the simple weapons of the grunt soldiers and their bodies.

Up in the air, Iron Man finished blasting the last bullhead's engines, sending it to belly flop into the bay's waters. He then shot down and slammed down to the ground on a three point landing. The whine of servos echoed his movements as he stood up.

"I'd surrender if I were you," Iron Man said.

The remaining Whitefang regrouped and charged the red and gold figure. And the four found out in two repulsor blasts, one haymaker and one bodyslam that yes, they should have surrendered.

"Where do I get one of those?" Torchwick asked as he carefully checked for escape routes. There.

"Sorry, I don't share my armor," Tony replied, even as he realized he lied. "With criminals, anyways."

"Really?" Ruby exclaimed loudly. You could almost see hearts in her eyes.

With that distraction, he dashed off in between Yang and Weiss, deflecting their attacks with little effort. He spun on a dime and shot into the air, then pivoted back to continue his escape.

"Watch out!" Iron Man shouted as he rocketed forward to catch the falling container before it could hit Blake, Weiss and Ruby. "Make some room."

They quickly got out of his way so he could toss the large shipping container out of the way.

"Oh, no!" Ruby exclaimed as she looked around. "We lost him?"

A hit sounded out in the distance and Torchwick sailed over wall to land at their feet. A moment later a woman in white and pale blue followed to land with elegance, her saber at the ready.

"Specialist Schnee?" Penny exclaimed and then started to hiccup.

Winter Schnee nodded to the girl. "We will discuss your unsanctioned outing later, Miss Polendina. Weiss, thank you for the heads up. I thought we would be able to get here before the fight, but we ran into a snag with Vale's air controller."

The sound of engines filled the air as five Atlesian combat fighters hove into view.

Then the police arrived to start processing the criminals.

Penny waved to them as she followed Winter to a dark sedan. She got into the back and sighed. It had been fun.


End file.
